Comments on: The Great Musical Divide

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 09:53:23 +0000

Sorry if I was reading too much between the lines there.

I think those long, dark winter evenings, and a different approach towards music education in schools may be a factor in Scandinavia.

By: Tom B

Tom B — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 07:40:09 +0000

Hi Tim,
I agree, it doesn’t explain everything, but I think it is a contributory factor in the musical output of those countries. And I never said anything about poorer quality music. At least I think I didn’t, and if I did that’s not what I meant.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 19:35:54 +0000

Think ethnic diversity is probably a bit of red herring here. I’m not sure you can blame black audiences for the inexplicable popularity of Ed Sheeran or the hype given to insipid indie bands like Catfish and the Bottlemen.

And the whole concept of ethnic diversity leading to poorer quality music; no, we really don’t want to go there.

By: Tom B

Tom B — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 13:14:26 +0000

I think you’re spot on Tim, about encountering the music in a different context without all of the cultural baggage. Another factor which might also help to explain the popularity of metal in Scandinavia is that Scandinavia and especially Eastern Europe have little ethnic diversity. It’s probably too much of a generalisation to say that “black artists produce black music for black people and the same goes for white artists/music/people” as we all know of people from one background who like the ‘other’ type of music but I think there’s an element of that going on in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia if only for the reason that those areas have relatively few home grown ethnic artists.